Court Makes it Easier to Prove Sex Harassment

WASHINGTON: Sexually harassed employees now have a lot less to prove in court after the Supreme Court on Friday stepped up the pressure on employers to discover and deal with workplace harassers. Unfortunately for Paula Jones, the standards haven't been lowered enough.

"It's quite a strong statement by the Court. The employer can't escape
liability with just a paragraph in the employee manual," says TIME legal correspondent Adam Cohen. "But the employee still has to prove that her career was threatened in some way, and Jones wasn't able to do that."

The pair of rulings came from a comparatively unified court -- 7 to 2 -- and shows that even conservatives on the bench are staying strong on sexual harassment, says Cohen. For the record, the dissenters were Justices Antonin Scalia and -- who else? -- Clarence Thomas.